The trap and the truth

Jul 16, 2025 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – There are times in a nation’s life when the task at hand is not to solve every problem but to point a trembling, insistent finger at the cause of them. Such is the season in which AZMO finds himself.

The PPP and Mr. Jagdeo, like old foxes made cynical by years in the henhouse, have set a trap. They want AZMO to play a part in a role he never auditioned for. They want to prod him, needle him, cajole him into hosting a press conference—into standing before the klieg lights of an “intellectual” debate. Why? Because they think they can expose him. Because they are not interested in his vision, but in ridiculing him.

It is not that AZMO’s party –WIN – lacks policy—or that he is unfit to speak to policy. But he must know this: he is not being invited to the lectern in order to enlighten the nation. He is being baited into a corner where, should he slip on a comma or a clause, the hyenas will descend. The object of the PPP is not a dialogue, but a demolition. In this, some members of the media have become complicit, knowingly or not. They imagine themselves neutral stewards of public information, but a few have confused interrogation with aggression, and curiosity with bias.

In their rush to appear discerning, they have forgotten that a question is not a thesis. Forbes Burnham once reminded a young journalist in Barbados of this very thing: “When you are asking a question,” he said, “you do not make a judgment on the issue.” Burnham was saying that if you make a judgment, you are not asking a question—you are arguing a point.” And that, I believe, was the last press conference he ever gave. This sin of mixing judgment with inquiry was on full display in the encounter between a reporter and a member of Team Mohammed after WIN had submitted its list of candidates. The reporter, as if taking on the role of national economist, disputed that Guyana’s economy was not diversified—not by posing a question, but by issuing a counterclaim. That is not journalism; it is a debate.

But the wider concern is not the behaviour of journalists, poor as it sometimes is. It is this: Should AZMO allow himself to be lured into a conversation that serves the interests of those who fear his very presence on the ballot? That, to me, is the real question. The answer is no.

AZMO must not waste his breath trying to impress the architects of his humiliation. He is not running to be the next philosopher-king. He is not contesting an essay competition. He is seeking to break the suffocating binary of PPP versus PNCR, a duopoly that has starved Guyana of unity, growth, and grace for nearly six decades. The policies may differ slightly; the posture remains the same: entitlement, arrogance, and contempt for the people, all dressed in the garb of governance.

The campaign of WIN, AZMO’s party, is about breaking a spell. It is about showing the electorate that the two dominant parties have failed. Failed to build, failed to unite, failed to lead. After 59 years, we still quarrel over drains and roads, over race and rice. That is not a sign of a country in bloom; it is a country held hostage by the past rivalry of two discredited parties.

People support AZMO not because they think he carries some bound volume of superior policies, or that he is a messiah armed with ten-point plans. They do not support him because of policies. They support him because he is being kicked while down, and they are tired of seeing only the powerful win. They support him because the PPP has made a sport out of mocking him, and they see in him the bruised face of the Guyanese spirit: stubborn, proud, and unbowed. They support him because he is the underdog. And in politics, as in sport, the underdog has a certain sacred appeal. There are always those who cheer for the underdog.

So let AZMO resist the urge to explain himself in the language of the technocrat. Let him resist being drawn into trying to be seen as an intellectual. He is not. He can hire persons to develop his policies if and when the time comes. His mission is, as the name of his party states, to WIN. Win for the ordinary man, win for the downtrodden and win for those who are on the sidelines. Let him go village to village, house to house, voice to voice, and say what needs to be said: The PPP and the PNCR have failed us. They have been blights on this nation. It is time to send them both packing. It is time for change; not debate. That should be AZMO’s message; not about policies. And so AZMO must do one thing, and do it well: mobilise the people. Stir their hope. Call forth their tired souls from the deadening weight of party loyalty. And, above all, keep his eyes on the real prize—not a debate stage, but a nation reclaimed.

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aggression, Azruddin Mohamed, Bias, Lacks policy, Peeping Tom, WIN Party

One thought on “The trap and the truth”

rudeo July 16, 2025 at 8:54 am

I can smell the stink here..setting up Ass-ruddin for the ultimate fall….not obligated to answer public enquiry on policies to gain my vote?….and Ass-ruddin thinking you are in his corner? Go for it!

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